Charlie Puth / Blu DeTiger @ Toyota Music Factory, Irving, TX

Words and photos by Scott Rowe

Quick little story regarding Charlie Puth. I took my two little sisters to see Shawn Mendes at the American Airlines Center some years ago (2017, to be exact), and who I mentioned as an 'upstart' opening for Mr. Mendes in that review, was a star-in-the-making, Charlie Puth. Puth, who was riding high on his single, "Attention", only played six songs during his support set, but these six songs would be laying the groundwork for Puth's rise to stardom. Since that date in 2017, Puth has released two albums, 2018's Voicenotes and his most recent effort, Charlie, which he is touring off of. The Charlie Live Experience felt like a storybook seen through Charlie's eyes, sharing insights to his songwriting and his path to stardom. Even though Puth is a certified star, he very well might be one of the most humble artists I've ever seen, shown by his constant celebration of the audience and taking in everything they were giving him all night.

Opening the show was Blu DeTiger, the bass-toting pop musician who recently headlined her own show at the Granada Theater last November. While Tiger has only released a single EP, 2021's How Did We Get Here?, she has made the rounds as a touring bassist with multiple well-known artists and, as stated earlier, headlined her own tour in November of 2022. Her opening set included a mix of her own tracks, as well as a mix of covers including Gorillaz's "Feel Good Inc." She and her band were well-received and paved the way for Puth's headlining set.

After the stage lights dimmed, Puth appears in a spotlight and begins by kneeling over and giving an introduction to a song before performing "Charlie Be Quiet". The performance includes plenty of help from the audience and Puth gives a nice keytar solo towards the end of the song. Nice touch. What catches me off guard is how many hits Mr. Puth has under his belt. I knew of a few but the setlist is chalk full of them, including the third song in the setlist, "Attention", which had the entire crowd singing, to a cover of the Kid LAROI's "Stay". The sound and production were tight, a nice sounding backing band produced a nice groove while a giant array of lights behind the stage gave a complex setting from song to song. Puth himself never settled into one spot, as he roamed the stage from side to side, moving up the stairs at the back of the stage, to playing at one of the two pianos/synth setup at front of the stage.

The man is not a one-trick pony, and his vocals throughout the night were nothing but flawless. His performance was impressive; the only mishap happened when he was handed the keytar the strap fell off his shoulder but like the professional he is, he placed it on top of his piano and played it as such. The majority of the set drew from Charlie, 7 out of the 17 songs respectively but he also made sure to drop in more of his hits including "We Don't Talk Anymore". But his finest one-two punch came during the encore when he performed "One Call Away" followed by an amazing rendition of "See You Again". There were definitely a few tears shed during the song. But overall, this was quite an experience, more than I honestly was expecting. Kudos to Charlie and his entire team.

Photos of the show are below:

Blu DeTiger